The Dry Pacific Northwest?

Endeavour Intermediate School in Milton has a lovely coutryard garden that utilizes some great drought tolerant plants.  I used to walk  through this garden daily and decided that it would be nice to revisit and photograph the garden.  I didn't realize that there is no automatic irrigation in this area.  We've had no measurable rain since July 22 and we are close to breaking the record for the logngest period of time the Seattle area has gone without rain.  Imagine my surprise to find the normally lush and green Endeavor garden showing the effects of such a long dry spell.

These asters are usually quite green and spangled with purple flowers at this time of year.  There are a few purple blooms in there.

This guy doesn't seem phased at all by the lack of water.

The rhododendron and wire vine in the foreground look quite green still.

 

These berberis are doing very well.  Believe it or not,the space between the berberis and the sedum is usually full of plants.

 Brave daylilies continue to bloom as they have since spring.  I'm thinking that this is Stella D'oro.

 We've not had an evening low under 45 but the hostas look almost as if they've been hit by frost.

Although it doesn't look it, this garden is quite large and has several paths which allow studens/teachers to walk through the garden and many do when it's dry outside.  During the many rainy days, folks tend to stay under the covered walkways. From this angle, the garden still looks pretty green.

 I don't know the story of this wooden pig but think it's cute.

 This greenhouse was purchased when the garden was made several years ago, was used for a little while and now sits vacant (well kind of.)  I bet I could get permission to use it if I want to clean it up.  It's unheated but in a fairly sheltered place.  Would it be worth it to schlep a big part of my collection across town?  It would allow me to have a little more plant space at home & maybe bring in more than what I usually do. What would you do?  It sounds perfect to me - access to a greenhouse without having to give up garden space.  Hmm. I'm pretty lazy, though and this would take some work and planning.

 There's quite a thick blanket of thistle seed accumulated over several years along with other weed seeds flying around in there.  Just opening the door and pulling on the blue tarp caused me to be picking seeds off of my shirt all evening.  I'm thinking maybe shop vac.